the warrior boy
by Highlord Cross
Summary: My avatar take on the POEM the highwayman by Alfred Noyes main pairing: tokka with implied one sided zoph


Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is a REVISED! version of my first fanfic A:TLA The Warrior Boy

The warrior boy

The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees  
The moon was a ghostly warship upon the raging seas  
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor  
And the warrior boy came riding riding riding  
The warrior boy came riding up to the Bei Fong's door

He'd his hair pulled back from his forehead and a cloak that hid his face  
He wore a shirt of purest blue and breeches of warm pole skin  
The fitted with never a wrinkle his boots were worn with wear  
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle  
His knife hilt a twinkles,His boomerang blade a twinkles  
Under a jeweled sky

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the Bei Fong's yard  
He tapped with his spear on the windows but all was locked and barred  
He whistled a tune to the window and who should be waiting there  
But the Bei Fong's green eyed daughter  
Toph the Bei Fong's daughter  
Plaiting a dark red love knot into her long black hair

Dark in the Bei Fong's yard a stable wiket creaked  
Where Zuko the ostler listened his face was white and peaked  
His eyes were hollows of madness his hair like mouldy hay  
But he loved the Bei Fong's daughter  
The Bei Fong's green eyed daughter  
Dumb as a dog he listened and he heard the warrior say

"One kiss my bending sweetheart I'm off to help Aang tonight  
But I shall be back with a vic'try song before the morning light  
Yet if they should press me sharply and harry me through the day  
Then wait for me by the moonlight  
Listen for me by the moonlight  
I'll come to thee by the moonlight though hell should bar the way"

He stood upright in the stirrups he scarce could reach her hand  
But she loosened her hair in the casement his face burnt like a brand  
As the sweet black locks of perfume came tumbling over his chin  
He kissed it's locks in the moonlight  
(Oh sweet locks in the moonlight)  
And he tugged at his reins in the moonlight and galloped away to the west

He did not come at the dawning he did not come at noon  
And out of the tawny sunset before the rise of the moon  
When the road was a nomad's ribbon over the purple moor  
The fire nation troops came marching marching marching  
Lord Ozai's men came marching up to the Bei Fong's door

They said no word to Sir Bei Fong they drank his ale instead  
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed  
Two of them knelt at the casement with fire in their hearts  
There was death at every window  
And hell at one dark window  
For they could see through the casement the road that he would ride

They tied her up to attention with many a sniggering jest  
And they bound a saber beside her with the point beneath her breast  
"Now keep good watch" and they kissed her she heard the dead boy say  
"Wait for me by the moonlight  
Listen for me by the moonlight  
I'll come to thee by the moonlight though hell should bar the way"

She twisted her hands behind her but all the knots held good  
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood  
They stretched and strained in the darkness and the hours crawled by like years  
Till on the stroke of midnight  
Cold on the stroke of midnight  
The tip of one finger touched it a small stone now was hers

The tip of one finger touched it she strove no more for the rest  
Up she stood at attention with the point beneath her breast  
She would not risk their hearing she would not strive again  
For the road lay bare in the moonlight  
Blank and bear in the moonlight  
And the blood in her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain

Tlot tlot had the heard it the horse's hooves rang clear  
Tlot tlot in the distance were they deaf they did not hear  
Down the ribbon of moonlight over the brow of the hill  
The warrior boy came riding riding riding  
The troops looked to their priming she stood up straight and still

Tlot in the frosty silence tlot in the echoing night  
Nearer he came and nearer her face was like a light  
Her eyes grew wide for a moment she drew one last deep breath  
Her finger moved in the moonlight  
Her stone shot forth in the moonlight  
Fire flew in the moonlight and warned him with her death

He turned he spurred to the west he did not know she stood  
Bowed with her o'er the saber drenched with her own red blood  
Not till the dawn had he heard it his face grew gray to hear  
How Toph the Bei Fong's daughter  
The Bei Fong's blinded daughter  
Had watched for her love in the moonlight and died in the darkness there

Back he spurred like a madman shrieking a curse to the sky  
The white road smoking behind him his boomerang brandished high  
Blood-red was his cloak in the golden noon wine-red was his blue shirt  
When they shot him down in the roadway  
Down like a dog on the roadway  
And he lay in his blood on the roadway her face fresh in his mind

_And still on a winter's night they say when the wind is in the trees  
__When the moon is a ghostly war ship upon the raging seas  
__When the road is a nomad's ribbon over the purple moor  
__The warrior boy comes riding riding riding  
__The warrior boy comes riding up to the Bei Fong's door_

_Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the Bei Fong's yard  
__He taps with his spear on the shutters but all is locked and barred  
__He whistles a tune to the window and who should be waiting there  
__But the Bei Fong's green eyed daughter  
__Toph the Bei Fong's daughter  
__Plaiting a dark red love knot into he long black hair_


End file.
